'Prove you can't work': people on sickness benefits to be sent for a fitness test

Fitness test: health benefits claimants will be asked to undergo a GP test, proving that they are unfit for work

People claiming sickness benefits will be forced to prove they cannot work under a new scheme.

Benefits claimants will be sent to their local GPs for 'fitness tests' - which will include everything from climbing stairs to picking up objects from the floor.

Those who are deemed fit for work face losing up to £30 from their weekly benefits.

The pilot scheme is targeting 130,000 people in the Greater Manchester area. It has already been used on new sickness benefit claimants, and seventy per cent were deemed fit for work.

The region will now become the first place in the country to force existing claimants to take the tests as well.

The scheme is part of a plan to get more people off welfare and into work.

Greater Manchester has some of the highest rates of sickness-related unemployment in the country. One in 10 working-age adults is off work and on benefits. Health chiefs estimate that sickness costs the region £1.4bn a year in benefits and 'lost' tax.

The Department for Work and Pensions said the tests were being constantly adapted ahead of the Greater Manchester trial.

A spokesman said people facing cancer treatment would be exempt, as could those with 'fluctuating' conditions like MS.

Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People, said: 'For the first time disabled people are receiving the support they need to get back into work.